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My mother, the manager of a large commercial bank, has been known to hand me the phone and ask me to "do the 777-FILM thing" for her. Let's just say she's not technologically savvy. Nor does she want to be. So I was curious to see what she would say after using Tellme Network's Tellme voice-portal service.
Tellme.com combines the accessibility of the telephone with the richness of the Web. You register for the service at Tellme.com. Once you're registered, you never have to use the computer again -- it's all about the phone. After dialing a toll-free number, users can speak commands and retrieve information like stock quotes, movie times, news and traffic reports, sports, horoscopes, soap opera reports, and weather.
Of course, you can get all this stuff instantly on the Web, only now you don't have go -- or be -- near a computer. The only price of admission is when registering, you give a few personal facts like your home phone number and address -- and sit through a few short ads. If you prefer not to disclose personal data, you can wait a few months and completely bypass filling out the Web-based form. Once Tellme Networks completes its beta test of the product, it will be rolled out without registration restrictions.
DANGER ZONE.
My mom -- too old for a a midlife crisis but too young to retire -- wouldn't sign up for the service herself, so I let her use my account by having her dial my seven-digit telephone number when prompted. "I thought you said I wouldn't have to dial any numbers," she said. The experiment was already in peril! But once she dialed the number, she listened to the prerecorded announcer explain how to use the service. Uh, oh -- pained look on her face, so I prompted her to say "movies."
As a frequent user of Tellme and America Online's 777-Film's movie listings, I had already decided that I liked the AOL service better because if I want to, I can use it to buy tickets over the phone. This isn't an option on Tellme yet. My mother, however, fell in love with the Tellme movie listings, especially since there are no buttons to press or special codes to remember. She was able to search for comedies at her local theater and hear the available times without getting lost or having to sit through any ancillary messages.
Once we found the movie she wanted, I instructed her to say "restaurants" because she was already getting antsy. Tellme searches for local restaurants based on your area code and phone number. But you can also use it to find new cafes in New York or Mexican restaurants in Dallas. The database is searchable by Zip code or genre. If you're still undecided after listening to a location's name and address, you can listen to Zagat reviews to make sure the pasta place you've picked is up to snuff.
SHORT CALLS.
In my mother's case, I told her to search for a new restaurant in her hometown. She said the name of her town, but alas, we ran into trouble. Like many of the towns on Long Island, hers has an Indian name. The service could not get it right, no matter how many times she tried. Finally, she was forced to punch in her Zip code on the touch tone. The rest of the trial went fine. She searched for Italian restaurants, listened to a review, and was able to call and ask if she needed a reservation using the free outgoing phone-call option.
The outgoing-call option is also available for personal calls and the airline menu option. The personal-call menu option, called the Tellme Phone booth, lets users make short calls that can be placed by saying or dialing the number. At the end of the service's two-minute time limit, a man's voice lets you know that your time is up, and your call is disconnected.
She wouldn't try this option because she said she would never use it. "What if you need to make a call, and you don't have a quarter?" I asked. Her reply: "That would never happen." Well, right on that score. She carries her life in her purse. But it's a nice option for the rest of us.
TWO-MINUTE TEST.
When we were done testing the service, my mother said something I never thought I'd hear: She asked me for Tellme's number. As she was writing it down in her phone book, it dawned on me that in the six years that I've been covering technology, this was the first time that she had ever used something that I wrote about and then liked it enough to keep a reference handy.
Before I calling my experiment a success, I decided to let my eight-year-old nephew try the service. He watched my mom test it and was clamoring to give it a try. His trial lasted all of two minutes because the service didn't understand what he was trying to say. "This is stupid Aunt Ka," he said, as he tossed the phone at me.
His lack of success drove home a good point. Voice-activated services are only as good as their voice-recognition capabilities. When I used the weather option, the cities I chose -- even clearly enunciated -- weren't understood about 75% of the time. That's not good. Tellme Networks might want to think about revisiting this feature.
ROOM TO GROW.
Too bad that my nephew couldn't get on. He would've loved the blackjack feature. Sure, I found it to be relatively useless, but he would've gotten a kick out of the Sean Connery soundalike say, "You win, you kick booty!" or "This is better than Monte Carlo," or "You lose, you Scotsman. Show me your kilt."
Tellme, which is still being tested, should improve over time. Plus, its execs promise customized voice portals and phone-based commerce with the final version. To quote faux-Connery, if you can stand sitting through a few short commercials, you, too, can kick booty. Then again, my mother might hear that. Oh, dear.
Bannan is a freelance writer living in Massapequa, N.Y. Follow her Product Reviews, twice a month for BW Online
EDITED BY DOUGLAS HARBRECHT
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